


Being the Tin Dog

by Rinkafic



Series: Misc Fanfic [11]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-10
Updated: 2012-08-10
Packaged: 2017-11-11 20:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/482720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey opens his door to find a surprise visitor.</p><p>Done for Kink Bingo fill "Mechanical/Technical"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being the Tin Dog

There was a buzz at the door, which was odd because the door to his flat had a knocker. Warily, Mickey went to the door and peered through the peephole, he had become more cautious after his experiences in the other dimension. He didn’t see anyone standing on his step. The buzzing came again.

He cracked the door open and looked around. “Master,” a familiar electronic voice said. He looked down and there it was. The metal dog.

Mickey opened the door wider and crouched down. “Here now, what are you doing here?”

The tiny dishes that resembled ears atop the robotic animal’s head swerved around with a whirring noise just as Mickey remembered from the last time he had seen the thing. “Unknown. Search program revealed domicile of Mickey Smith.”

“Right, I live here. But why are you here, dog?” The presence of the Doctor’s robotic dog companion on his front step made Mickey recall the time before, when he had still be a bit of a clown, a bumbler. Thanks to this pile of chips and metal, he had realized that up until that time, his role in Rose and the Doctor’s life had been that of this robot. He had been the tin dog in the relationship. After that, he had set about trying to improve himself.

“Mistress is gone,” K-9 said after much swerving of servos and electronic thought. “Mistress has passed.”

Mistress? Mickey thought. Oh. How horrible. That nice lady. “Well, come in.” Mickey said, standing up and stepping aside to let the little robot enter his house.

And thus he acquired a tin dog as a companion.

He grew to like K-9, in the years the robot dog lived with him. A different kind of pet that could talk back and didn’t need walkies and food. K-9 liked Martha, when she became a serious part of his life. Things were fine and dandy, no issues no problems.

Then that damned Jack Harkness turned up at the door one day and involved Martha, Mickey and K-9 in one of his harebrained adventures. It was all Jack’s fault that Mickey’s consciousness got transferred into the tin dog. To add insult to injury, K-9 ended up in Mickey’s body and was kidnapped by aliens and they had not been able to locate him.

With resignation to his fate, Martha had brought Mickey home again. Jack had apologized profusely and promised to look for K-9 and Mickey’s human body. Then he was off, leaving the unhappy couple to stare miserably at each other in the living room of their flat.

“It could be worse,” Martha said, patting his head. Not that he could feel it. He couldn’t feel anything stuck in this heap of metal. “At least you still have your mind, and you’re mobile.”

“Do not laugh at this, Martha,” he warned, in K-9’s synthesized voice.

“Oh, Mickey!” and then she started to laugh in earnest, flopping back on the couch and giggling.

“I really am the tin dog now,” he complained, ignoring his wife’s giggle fit. She had a lot more faith in Jack Harkness and believed he would keep his word. Mickey believed he was now stuck in this little metal body.

He made the most of the situation.

He used K-9’s video capabilities and editing functions to make videos of Martha, who felt guilty for laughing at him and went along with his requests for her to perform for him. He made sure export his videos to their home computer, just in case Jack came through and he had opportunity to enjoy them again later, in human form.

Mickey caught up on ALL the tellie he’d missed in the last twenty years. Thanks to K-9’s computer chips, he was able to pick up all the satellite channels and ‘see’ all the programs in electronic form and speed. He watched sports programs from all over the world.

But it was a little boring after awhile, being the tin dog. The initial novelty wore off and he wanted his hands back. He missed smelling things. He missed cuddling up with his wife.

Then one day there was an odd noise in the back yard. Mickey rolled through the flat and up the board that Martha had propped up to the windowsill so Mickey could look out. He let out an excited chirp when he spied a familiar blue police box in the yard.

The door opened and Jack and a man wearing a sports jacket and a bow tie came out and approached the back door. Jack knocked. “Mickey? Are you home?”

“Where else would I be?” he asked, rolling back down the board and waiting a few feet from the door. “Come in!”

“Hi Mickey!” Jack said.

“Hello Mickey!” The man in the bow tie crouched down and spoke directly to him. There was something familiar about him. Mickey scanned him with K-9’s sensors and the report came back as “The Doctor.”

“You changed your face again,” Mickey said.

“Well, yes, it happens. Let’s get you to the Tardis. I think we might be able to set you to rights again.” The two men lifted him up and carried him down the steps then set him on the ground and he followed to the Tardis.

The control room of the ship was different than the last time he had been inside. He circled around, examining the changes.

“Mickey Smith!” his voice exclaimed from the other side of the control console.

“K-9!” he replied, overjoyed to see his body again. And it seemed none the worse for wear.

“Doctor, please return us to our original forms,” K-9 asked.

The Doctor smiled and patted his arm. ‘We’re just getting to it. Jack would you take Mickey over to the transfer unit?”

“Sure thing. C’mon Mickey.” Jack took him to a clear-walled chamber and closed him up inside it. K-9 ran over and got inside another one beside him. There was a dimming of the lights, some odd mechanical noise and then he felt a violent rip, quite like the one that had precipitated his switch into K-9’s body in the first place.

He opened his eyes, and then realized that he had eyes to open. He was back! He laughed and ran his hands over his body happily. Martha was goign to be very happy when she got back from work that night.

“Thanks Jack,” Mickey said, slapping Harkness on the shoulder and smiling.

“My pleasure. So how was it, being a robot?” Jack asked.

“It was cool at first. Different. I saw things differently, and everything a high speed. Life was going by too fast, you know? I missed being alive, touching things. Hands man, hands are the best!”

“Affirmative. Hands were a unique experience,” K-9 agreed. “But this is better.”

The experience gave them something to talk about, and brought them closer. Mickey stopped thinking of K-9 as his little metallic pet and more as a person, part of the family. He never forgot what it had felt like to be K-9 for a time.

 

The End


End file.
